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The 13 Best Global Google Doodles

Traditionally the number 13 is frowned upon as being unlucky, but today Google has all the luck.

It’s the online search superstar’s birthday today and for a teenager, Google has been keeping it pretty mellow. Just family and friends, a couple wearing little party hats, some balloons and a few neatly wrapped presents and a cake at the center of the table. The only sign that things could get rowdy comes in the form of an exclamation point hanging out next to the fam.

This birthday party is available for every person in the world to view on the official Google homepage in the form of a Google doodle, one of the little embellishments to the Google logo that the creative team draws up on a regular basis to illustrate the otherwise sparse website. Though many countries have Google doodles that are specific to their culture, Google doodles are also available at a global scale, reaching all the far corners of the earth (and internet).

Doodle 4 Google, Google’s official history of the doodle site offers up a brief history of when the doodle was thought up. In 1998, founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin decided to let Google users know that they were out of the office (and heading to a Burning Man festival) by drawing up a quick image of a stick figure standing behind the second “o”in the Google logo. Since this drawing, Google has worked alongside chief Doodler, Dennis Hwang, to assist in creating and well, doodling some of Google’s most beloved images including the infamous Magriette’s Birthday from November 21, 2008.

Hwang, who came from humble intern beginnings at Google, has since worked on multiple doodles with the idea behind the work to celebrate the lives of celebrities (be it in the world of physics, philosophy, or pop culture), athletic events, holidays, and anniversaries. Many notables over the years include Confucius, Jackson Pollack, Dr. Seuss, Houdini, and even the cast of Sesame Street.

To say that the Google doodle over the years has gotten to be sophisticated is an understatement. The doodle has over 300 versions unique to the United States and over 700 available internationally. In the last few years most notably, Google doodles have evolved from just an image to an image that one could click on and immediately interact with. For instance, when Pac-Man celebrated their 30th anniversary on May 21, 2010, the Google doodle became the site’s first interactive Doodle with 255 levels created. Many a job was neglected for employees in their cubicles and for college students, classes either skipped or attended, but with a laptop in tow as the world caught on to that sweet, sweet Pac-Man fever.

After scrolling through a list of the Google doodles throughout the years, I decided to make a list of Google’s 13 greatest hits. Google’s greatest strength has always been its ability to show off both their brand through reinvention. Imagine if Coca-Cola or McDonald’s did this to their corporate logo every other day? It simply wouldn’t work- there’s too much brand recognition that consumers have in these companies for something that radical to occur. And then there’s the issue of being unable to embrace the new image.

Google has never had this problem because while the Doodles themselves are wildly popular they only last for a day or so. The Google logo, on the other hand, is iconic itself, using a series of primary colors and simple font to read. Easy, but still innovative.

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